A big band remix of Super Mario themes just won a Grammy Award, beating Wicked star Cynthia Erivo to win in the Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella category.
Super Mario Praise Break, a five-minute medley of toe-tapping Mario tunes, marks the second win for talented video game soundtrack outfit The 8-Bit Big Band, which previously won in the same category for a Kirby cover back in 2022.
Featuring tunes from throughout the Mario franchise, from its earliest days through Super Mario Galaxy and beyond, you can listen to the Grammy Award-winning composition below:
Jazz Orchestra ‘8-Bit Big Band’ won a Grammy Award for Best Arrangement, Instrumental, or A Cappella for ‘Super Mario Praise Break’
It contains music from Super Mario Bros., Super Mario World, Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Galaxy.https://t.co/dqaA1X7buZ pic.twitter.com/YV0zel6gLt
— Stealth (@Stealth40k) February 2, 2026
Once again, this is an entirely unofficial cover, meaning that Nintendo shares none of the glory (other than having created the original tunes in the first place). The tune beat three other tracks to the award, most notably including Cynthia Erivo, who was nominated for her arrangement of original song Be Okay.
“WE JUST WON OUR 2nd GRAMMY 🤯🤯🤯,” The 8-Bit Big Band wrote on social media. “Thank you to everyone who listened and supported to all of our new releases and huge congrats to my co-arrangers on the now Grammy winning Super Mario Praise Break.”
Video game nominations remain a rare occurrence at the Grammys. Back in 2011, Civilization 4 theme song Baba Yetu scooped the Grammy Award for Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals. A year later, Austin Wintory’s soundtrack for Journey became the first video game soundtrack to receive a Grammy nomination in the Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media category, though that award was ultimately won by The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
Since 2023, the Grammy Awards have featured a dedicated video game soundtrack category, at least. This year’s award was another gong for Austin Wintory, who won for his work on Sword of the Sea. Losing out this year were Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora — Secrets of the Spires, Helldivers 2, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and Star Wars Outlaws: Wild Card & A Pirate’s Fortune.
Despite cover versions from two of its franchises now being Grammy winners, Nintendo has never officially been nominated itself, despite decades of soundtracks and tunes.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
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